


Finding the Lair

by tptigger



Category: The Tomorrow People (2013)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 23:45:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2751602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They may have to steal bread, but they don't want to keep sleeping under bridges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding the Lair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [arianrhod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arianrhod/gifts).



> This is my first assignment that didn't have any optional details. I hope you like the result.  
> Many thanks to Ladysliver for the brainstorming and htbthomas for the beta.

John couldn't sleep. He should have been able to sleep: he and Cara had done some pretty impressive begging (and maybe a little telekinetic pickpocketing) and gotten enough money for a room for the night. John figured people were extra sympathetic because the predicted lows were -10 before the windchill, and the news was reporting about the shelters teeming with more people than usual. John should have been making the most of it: this was his first night in a bed in six months. It wasn't the viaducts or undersides of bridges where he and Cara usually slept, breezes blowing through the open ends like a wind tunnel. There weren't other people bearing guns to take care of vulnerable people or just looking to come out of the rain. Here there was a locked door to keep out the former. Only other Tomorrow People could get inside this room tonight, and they wouldn't be planning on killing them.

Cara was asleep in the other bed, dead to the world. John knew that was good, and that it meant she trusted him. She'd been like a wounded animal when he found her, jumping at shadows, usually making giant piles of whatever was handy around her while she slept. John assumed these piles were to alert her if anyone tried to sneak up on her: John included. John could only imagine Cara's reaction if she found out that, unlike most of their people, he was actually able to kill. He was honestly surprised that she had agreed to join him in the hotel room tonight, two double beds notwithstanding.

The weather was probably a deciding factor--even if the shelters hadn't been full. They had to avoid shelters, there was too much chance of ULTRA catching a glimpse of them on the security cameras and finding them. Abandoned buildings were generally good for camping out in colder weather, but the cops were on the alert for anyone building indoor fires, which in unheated buildings were a necessity. For most people, this meant a night in a warm jail followed by getting checked into the local shelter. For him and Cara, it could mean capture.

That was just unacceptable. Instead, they had taken the lesser risk of panhandling and garnered enough cash to book a dingy hole in the wall hotel that didn't ask any questions.

John jumped at the sound of footsteps in the hallway.

"Security guard," Cara whispered.

"In this place?" John doubted it.

There were two double beds with scratchy, starched sheets, stripes of scraped enamel in the bathtub, and peeling paint in the hallway. It was clean, but falling apart. 

"OK, it's a guy looking for a hooker," Cara said. "Happy now?"

"At least he won't want anything to do with us," John returned.

He propped himself up on his elbow on the stiff bed, the thin bedspread that barely kept the chill out falling so it was around his mid-chest instead of tucked under his chin. "Can't sleep either?" Maybe she'd been pretending.

"We have four walls, a roof, a bed, and a heater, what's my problem?" Cara asked.

"If you're checking every time someone walks by, probably the same as me," John said. "You're afraid that ULTRA has tracked us down."

"I thought this would be better."

"At least we're not having to worry about freezing to death," John said.

"Still can't sleep."

"Want my extra pillow?" John said. "We could ask the front desk for more, you could build yourself a pillow fort."

Cara snorted.

John was serious: Cara would still surround herself with empty boxes, piles of ten cans, or burrow in between trash cans in the park. Anything that might alert her to someone approaching her while she slept. "I haven't actually breached any of your defenses you know."

"I appreciate that."

John rubbed the bridge of his nose. "If you'd sleep better if I went somewhere else I think next door's unoccupied I could..."

Cara shook her head. "It's not you. Not anymore. You're not going to hurt me in my sleep, anyway."

That was good. Or at least an improvement.

"Then?"

Cara sat up, brushing her long hair back out of her eyes. "Then what?"

"Why can't you sleep?"

"Why can't you? It's not like you couldn't take me if I tried something."

"I feel too exposed here, not... I don't know. It's too cold outside to stay in any of our regular places, but aliases aside, this isn't... we're known here. Faces. At least on the streets we're nobodies. Invisible."

"Yeah," Cara said. "We need to learn to disappear."

"We know that," John pointed out, teleporting across the room for emphasis.

Cara rolled her eyes. "Can you only do the first half? Without reappearing?"

"That sounds dangerous," John said. "I mean, we could try it, I guess, but it's not really... there might be something out there, but I don't think sleeping in the middle of nothingness would be the world's best idea."

"It was a bad joke. The thing is we can't just disappear, we need somewhere to disappear to. Where do you go when you want to be invisible?"

"The Batcave?" John pulled a face.

Cara laughed. "Fictional, but probably warmer than outside."

"I really need more sleep to tackle this one," John said.

"Agreed," Cara said. "Maybe there are cave systems in teleportation distance."

"Sounds damp."

"Yeah, maybe," Cara said.

John walked back to his bed, and pulled the covers up to his head. "Take two. Good night."

"Good night."

It was probably another hour before he actually fell back to sleep.

* * *

They left the hotel just before checkout time, munching on bagels stolen from a grocery store the night before.

"Ugh," Cara said. "It's still bitter cold."

People were rushing past, not looking anything other than where they were going, just trying to get there and out of the cold as quickly as possible.

John nodded. "We might want to brave the soup kitchen for dinner. Library for now?"

"Yes," Cara said.

The library was warm, dry, and they were both clean enough not to stick out too much. They climbed up the steps, Cara’s fingers brushing along the lions on either side of the stairs. They probably risked a lot going to the Beaux-Arts building, but John liked the lions. With everything going on in their lives, a little Patience and Fortitude couldn't go astray.

They entered the main hallway, temporarily forgoing the comfort of being lost in tall shelves full of books, and headed for the computer lab--there was a limit on how much time they could be on a computer in a single session, so it made sense to spread things out throughout the day. The computer lab was fairly generic, a sign in sheet and two rows of computers. John signed in as Nick Y.--he liked the initials. Cara had chosen to be Sammie W. today. John raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why not?"

"I used my middle name."

"I will never in a million years tell anyone my middle name," Cara said. "This just seemed appropriate today."

John shrugged. "If you say so."

They settled into the computers. Cara pulled up a search window and typed in "New York City area caves." John went to some of his favorite news sites that he kept on a del.i.cious page.

He blinked.

"Don't tell me you actually found someone," Cara said, looking over from her search.

John spent a lot of time searching for news of the weird, trying to find others like them--other Tomorrow People. Today, however the news of the strange held another idea.

"The Wood Lane station in London's being torn down," John said.

"So?" Cara asked.

"They found some decomposing sleeping bags down there, a bunch of litter, like someone had been camping out."

"Not unusual," Cara said.

"Yeah, but all the stuff dates from the 1970s; the station has been closed since '73, no one found it until now."

Cara looked at him. "What are you thinking?"

"Well, some of the subway stations are pretty nice. Locker rooms. Easy to heat. If we're careful, we could even pull electricity and natural gas off of the grid."

"How would that go unnoticed?"

John grinned, thinking of a locker in Grand Central Station. "I think I know a way."

He closed the window he was currently in and searched for "New York City subway station closings."

"Subway stations?"

"Why not?" John asked. "Think about it: we can close it off so only people like us can get to it. We don't have to worry about stray saps, animals..."

"I bet rats could still get in."

"What about the stray dog that almost bit you last week?"

"I'm still not sure I like the idea."

"Let's see what's out there before you nix the idea. You really think caves would be better?"

"No. It was just... I thought maybe we could find one that had been converted into something and then abandoned."

John shook his head. "Too obvious. Those sorts of things aren't closed off."

"Never been to Meramec Caverns near St. Louis have you?"

"I've never been out of the state," John replied.

"We should teleport to Jersey just for giggles."

John didn't say anything, just glared at her.

* * *

It wasn't as simple as plugging words into a search engine. They had to go into the city plans and overlay them with current subway maps. Eventually, they narrowed it down to three locations.

"This is too small?" Cara was looking around at the cavernous walls of the main platform, but it wasn't the main platform they were interested in.

"We know of at least three other small groups of Tomorrow People roaming the city," John replied. "Unless you want to bunk people in here, there aren't enough service tunnels and store areas to really have living space."

Cara turned to him, eyebrows forming sharp angles with the top of her nose. "We don't need this much space for just the two of us."

"Safety in numbers," John said. "Roger spoke of a refuge. If we can find him, find it, we should be able to get all of us together easily. Besides, with ULTRA in town, we may find ourselves with other expats looking to escape."

"You think of yourself as some kind of refugee?" Cara asked.

John scrubbed a hand over his face. "Roger and Jedikiah in a lot of ways were like the family I never knew. Leaving took a lot."

"At least you had a choice."

John shook his head. "Not really. They were making me do bad things. Jedikiah loved me as conditionally as your parents did, his conditions were just different."

"You still made the choice to go."

"Yeah, there's that." John wanted out of this conversation: this was the most that he'd discussed ULTRA since he'd left, even if it was probably the most Cara had talked about herself in the entire time they'd known each other. "Next place?"

"Do we have to?"

"Yeah, we do."

"If there's so much strength in numbers, why are we apart now?"

"We're also more conspicuous together out there," John said.

"So you're thinking we build a temporary refuge until we can find the real one?"

"Yeah," John said. "Pretty much."

Cara looked around her, critically. She sighed. "In that case, yes, this place is too small."

* * *

They teleported into the second station on the subway platform and heard a loud crash and swearing from above. John turned on his flashlight, illuminating the platform and passages leading beyond. They followed them, hearing crashing dishes, chatter, and loud music.

The passage opened into a large space with a few empty rows of seats, covered in dust, debris, and rat droppings. Cara made a face and shook her head at John. He pointed up and mimed zipping his lips. He held up three fingers.

Cara nodded and they vanished in wisps of smoke.

* * *

The main problem was that they weren't sure how to approach the third place. While they were decent at teleporting at a distance, neither felt comfortable teleporting through the large amount of concrete they would need to get through from the street. Distance was hard, thick surfaces were hard--John could never get a straight answer from anyone--the Founder, Jedikiah, or Roger--as to why this was, but teleporting through the two together was well nigh impossible.

According to the map, the simplest approach was to teleport from inside a moving train. Neither liked the concept, but they felt it was their best option. They got on the appropriate line, hopping between cars at different stops until they managed to get a car to themselves, and right on time. At just the right moment, John nodded at Cara and they both teleported, landing in a large room. It might've been the platform, it was hard to tell. It was empty except for a couple of lone plastic chairs. Brick arches denoted a main space, and several rooms off of that--one with frosted glass and a door in between.

"This way," John said, turning on his flashlight again.

He led them into a room with a spiral staircase that led up into another corridor with what were probably once administrative offices, now devoid of furniture. "Get some mattresses and these would make good bedrooms."

"I guess," Cara said.

They went back down the stairs, through the main area, and into another alcove, this one leading to locker rooms marked Men and Ladies.

Cara hesitated at the door as John habitually walked towards the mens' locker room.

John chuckled. "I promise not to tell."

Cara thwacked him on the arm.

There were rows of lockers, many hanging open their keys still present. A layer of dirt and grime covered everything.

They went on, finding a tiled room where the tiles had probably once been white but were now a mix of grey and yellow.

John reached out telekinetically, turning on a shower head on the far wall. It sputtered, clanked, then red stuff spurted out.

Cara pulled a face. "Yuck."

The red was starting to dissipate.

"I think the problem is the water has been sitting in the pipes for a long time," John said. "It's clearing up."

Sure enough, the water was turning clear and soon started steaming just a bit.

"This might do," John said.

"Boys," Cara huffed. "It's filthy."

"Cleaning supplies," John said. "It'll take us all a while, but then it'll make you glad to have more of us."

"An interesting choice of team-building activity," Cara said.

"More like a necessary one," John pointed out.

They made their way out of the mens' locker room.

"Let's check the ladies', just to be thorough," John said.

Cara shrugged, but followed him. It was much the same.

"So this place, what do you think?" John asked as they returned to the main room.

"The teleport in is a little tricky." Cara frowned. 

"We can help the newbies, but that's ultimately a good thing--it'll keep ULTRA agents from finding us so easily."

"It's warm, but kind of dank."

"Dehumidifiers and some furniture will work wonders."

"The locker rooms need serious cleaning," Cara pointed out. "I think the one in midtown..."

"No, too close to ULTRA headquarters," John said.

"Lack of sunlight could be a problem," Cara said.

"I don't think we're going to get that in any of the underground subway tunnels."

Cara rolled her eyes. "There's no talking you out of this, is there?" Cara asked.

"Have you got a better idea?" John asked. "Besides hoping that we can panhandle enough for hotels all winter?"

Cara bit her lip and sighed, shaking her head.

"We're supposed to meet up with some of the others later," John said. "Why don't we run it by them."

"Okay," Cara said.

"What, you want this all to yourself?" John asked, gesturing.

"No, you're right it's just..." Cara paused, biting her lip. "Living in underground in a subway station? Is the first baby born here going to be named Paddington?"

John scrunched his nose at her.

"It was a book I found in the library once, they found a bear in the train station and named him Paddington," Cara said. "I was pretty disappointed to get here and find out that there's no Paddington Station."

"It's in London," John said.

Cara's mouth formed an "O".

"It must be a British book," John said.

"I never thought, I was so little when I read it," Cara said.

"Things are never the same as when we were little," John said.

"So the others?" Cara asked.

* * *

"The subway?" Mike asked, looking skeptical.

"It's underground," John said. "With this cold snap it's still pretty warm, like fall, and it'll probably be pretty cool in the summer too."

"I don't know, the subway's always boiling in the summer," Joey said, brushing his messy dreadlocks out of his face.

"That's all the warm bodies, the open air, and the heat from the trains," John said. "Underground tends to retain heat, but not get as hot either."

"Running water?" Joey added.

"Yes," John said. "We couldn't find the hot water heater, but..."

"Electricity?" Mike asked.

"I have a computer that should be able to help us tap into the grid without being detected," John said.

"I'm in, last night sucked," said the sullen Asian boy who was sitting next to Mike.

"This is Russell," MIke said, "we caught him trying to jack a stereo two blocks from ULTRA."

"You got a better idea on how to get food?"

"Steal the food, people don't track it as well," Mike said. "And don't go near ULTRA."

Russell held his hands up, waving them in a way that looked like he thought it was spooky, but reminded John more of jazz hands. "Woo, the super secret government agency that's going to kill us all."

John ran his hands through his hair. "They made me round up and capture more of our kind than I care to admit. The ones who didn't join had their powers stripped using a secret formula. Trust me, you do not want to run afoul of these guys."

"Don't mind Russell, he just came from the West Coast," Mike said. "He could really use a shower and a hot meal."

"Well, we can handle the showers," John said.

"I can steal a microwave, if you want to get the food," Russell said.

John shook his head.

"You got a better idea hot shot?" Russell retorted.

"No," John said, "but I don't have to like it."

"Whoever's on the food run should get cleaning supplies," Cara added.

* * *

John, Cara, and Mike lay on the floor. At least they didn't have to worry about it getting their clothes dirty. They'd been cleaning all day, and their new home was spotless, if smelling of an odd mix of pine, lemon, and chemical cleaners.

Joey and Russell appeared, a couch between them.

"You guys can get off of the floor," Russell said.

Cara looked at him, and yawned. Broadly.

Russell reached out a hand. Cara took it, pulled herself up and then plopped on the couch. "Wow, that's nice."

"We went to La-Z-Boy," Russell said, flopping next to her.

John pushed himself up, scrambling onto Cara's other side. "See, it's more homey already."

"The temperature thing across the street said it was -10 tonight," Joey said, flopping on Russell's other side. "I think we're better off here. Only need sweaters."

"Our next trick is scrounging up change for laundry," John said. "Washing things in the sink is no fun."

"I'll steal some washing machines once we're done with furniture." Russell grinned.

"You're sure you weren't caught on tape."

"Took out the cameras," Russell said. "Don't worry."

"I think it's kind of my job now," John said.

"What?" Russell asked, "You find this place and can lead us to the promised land and now you're the leader?"

"I vote for him," Joey said.

"Seconded," Cara said.

"Three against two," Mike said.

"How'd you know I'd vote no?" John asked.

"That's the way you roll," Mike said. "And you're worrying anyway, so I think you're voting yes whether you think you are or not."

John rolled his eyes. 

"I don't think that's how voting works, Mike," Russell said.

"Oh, it's on now," Mike said, getting up. He grabbed Russell in a headlock.

Russell shifted, knocking Mike off balance and pulling them both to the floor. 

"Boys!" Cara barked.

They looked up at her.

"Not in the house."

John raised an eyebrow.

"Underground lair," Cara said. "Whatever."

"Lair," Russell mused as he scrambled to his feet. "I kind of like that."

End


End file.
